8 Common House Bugs in Nevada You Need To Watch Out For

Pests aren’t what the state of Nevada is known for but there are quite a lot of them in there anyway. Depending on where in Nevada you are, be it in downtown Las Vegas or in a rural area, the pests you’d have to deal with can be quite different too. So, here we’ll list the 8 common house bugs in Nevada that you need to watch out for and some of the basics you should know about them.

8 Common House Bugs in Nevada

For a quick disclaimer before we start, here we’ll be talking about insects that are frequently found indoors or that outright nest in houses. There are many other Nevadan common pests such as rats, house mice, and other rodents that can be mentioned in any pest library that haven’t made this list.

There are also lots of outdoor insect pests that aren’t really house bugs. Crickets, cicadas, centipedes, ticks and other mites, and many others present their own unique challenges, be it health risks or mere noise nuisance, but either way, they can’t be considered house bugs.

The reason we’re focusing on house bugs in particular here is that they typically present a different set of issues and require different solutions than outdoor bugs or rodent pests. So, we’ll leave those for other articles.

1. Bees, wasps, hornets, and others

Flying and stinging insects from the Hymenoptera order such as honey bees, wasps, hornets, and others aren’t strictly indoor pests but they can nest not only next to houses but also on and in them too. Bees aren’t problematic as often as wasps and hornets as they are not as aggressive but even they can present problems for people with allergies.

Hornets and wasps can present even bigger problems because they are larger, much more aggressive, much more likely to try and scavenge human food, and – unlike bees – are capable of delivering repeated stings. This makes them an especially significant problem that needs to be dealt with quickly and decisively.

Bees, on the other hand, are only an issue if you have allergies, and are best dealt with by relocating their hive. This can be tricky, however, so it’s best to call professionals to do it for you.

2. Ants

Ants are also members of the Hymenoptera order together with bees and wasps but most of them don’t fly, with the exception of swarming ants in the spring and summer mating season. Another difference is that most ants don’t sting.

The major exception to that rule are the notorious fire ants which are, unfortunately, present in Nevada alongside other species such as Carpenter ants, Argentine ants, Acrobat ants, Ghost ants, Harvester ants, Little Yellow ants, and others.

The sting of a Fire ant isn’t as nasty as that of a hornet or a wasp but it’s still quite painful and can also lead to a strong allergic reaction. What’s more, Fire ants are quite aggressive and often attack in numbers when get close to their nests or food sources.

Carpenter ants can also be problematic. While they don’t sting, their mandibles deliver quite strong and painful bites compared to most other ant species.

Even other types of ants can be a nuisance once they settle in your home, however, and can be quite hard to get rid of if you’ve let the problem progress for long enough. So, if you don’t want to have to take apart your baseboards to deal with an ant infestation, the best prevention is to maintain a clean home and seal off the cracks and crevices on your house’s exterior.

3. Mosquitoes

These pests won’t typically “nest” – or rather lay their eggs – indoors unless you start leaving large water containers or flower pots out, however, mosquitoes happily get indoors and spend a lot of time there looking for prey when given the chance. A mosquito bite is not only nasty and itchy but it’s also a very likely source of diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, and others.

The good news is that mosquitoes are much easier to keep outside of our homes than they are to deal with outdoors – all you need to do is put up a mosquito screen on all windows and you should have little to no problems with mosquitoes in your home. An extra benefit to this is that such screens are great against most other insect pests too.

4. Bed bugs

One of the nastiest pests to deal with is bed bugs. These little insects dwell in mattresses, box springs, and other furniture fixtures, and they can be very difficult to get rid of once they’ve settled into your home.

They are also tricky to keep out because they don’t invade like other pests – through windows, doors, or wall cracks that can be sealed off. Instead, bed bugs get inside our homes by hitchhiking onto our clothes and luggage when we’ve happened to sit close to an existing infestation in a hotel, at someone else’s house, on the bus, or someplace else.

Getting rid of a bed bug infestation often requires whole-house fumigation because of how unmanageable a full-blown bed bug problem can be. The only silver lining here is that bed bugs at least don’t transmit diseases the way other insect pests do.

5. Spiders

Spiders aren’t typically seen as the nastiest of pests as they even have the side benefit of controlling the populations of many other pests. Plus, the venom of most spiders isn’t strong enough to hurt people in any meaningful way and such spiders typically don’t even try to bite people for that reason.

That said, there are spiders with venom powerful enough to hurt and they tend to know it. Unfortunately, some of them can be found in Nevada with the Black widow spider and the Brown recluse spider being near the top of that list. Dealing with large nests of these arachnids should be done carefully and in many cases, it’s best to just call pest control services to deal with the problem for you.

6. Cockroaches

Most of the thousands of species of roaches out there aren’t really pests as they don’t dwell in urban environments at all. The few species that do, however, are notorious. All of the “Big 3” – the American cockroach, German cockroach, and Oriental cockroach – can be found in Nevada and all three of them can be a pain to deal with once they make your home’s bathroom, pipes, or basements their new residence.

Cockroach nests can be very difficult to deal with without professional extermination if you let them get out of hand so it’s important to start dealing with them as soon as possible. Cockroaches can transmit some pretty nasty diseases too, so, don’t hesitate to call Las Vegas pest control if you have to rather than wait.

7. Termites

A termite infestation doesn’t usually threaten our lives and health as these insects don’t really transmit diseases. They are really proficient at destroying wooden structures, however, so they can be a nightmare for homeowners.

Technically, a termite infestation can lead to life-threatening circumstances if the structural damage from them is severe enough to cause an accident but people tend to notice before things get that far.

Naturally, the sooner you notice the symptoms of termite presence, the better. These little bugs do spread underground and will go anywhere they can find moisture and wood. Calling professionals as soon as you see stuff such as termite mounds or wood damage is a must.

8. Scorpions

Like mosquitoes, scorpions aren’t strictly indoor pests, however, they can often be found near and around people’s homes and will stray inside when given the chance. And, like spiders, scorpions can be seen as beneficial in the sense that they help keep other pests’ populations lower.

Unfortunately, also like spiders, some types of scorpions can be quite nasty to deal with even for people so they aren’t something want near or inside our homes. Dealing with them as soon as you notice even one is advisable.

In Conclusion

As you can see, house bug pests can be as troublesome in Nevada as they are in other states. In fact, because of its location and climate, Nevada tends to have some nasty species of ants, spiders, and scorpions that aren’t really present in many northern states at all.

This means that, whether you live in heavily urban areas or in the middle of the desert, you should do proper maintenance and prevention to make sure that you never have to deal with house pests or, at the very least, that you catch such problems before they’ve become too overblown.

Sharing is caring!